Luxury brokerages, developers, and private banks use this label for a buyer or client with investable assets of at least $1 million. Owning an expensive primary home does not, by itself, qualify someone. What matters is capital that can be invested, advised on, or used to close without treating the residence as part of the total.
How Investable Assets Are Counted
Capgemini’s World Wealth Report is the definition private banks usually cite. It treats the group as people with investable assets of $1 million or more, “excluding their primary residence, collectibles, consumables, and consumer durables.” Two households with the same net worth can fall on different sides of the line when one fortune sits in a house and the other sits in a portfolio.
- Counted. Cash, deposits, publicly traded securities, and other assets a firm can manage.
- Not counted. The primary residence, along with collectibles, consumables, and everyday durables such as cars.
- Higher balances stay inside. Crossing $1 million is the entry. Larger portfolios are segments of that same group, not a new starting line.
Commonly Cited Wealth Tiers
In that report, $30 million or more is the Ultra-High-Net-Worth (UHNW) band, and it sits inside the $1 million definition rather than outside it. From $1 million to $5 million the report uses the name millionaires next door, and from $5 million to $30 million it uses mid-tier millionaires. Below the entry line, marketing to affluent clients commonly cites about $100,000 to just under $1 million as mass affluent. Capgemini’s glossary in the same report is narrower: mass affluent is typically about $100,000 to $250,000, and a separate affluent band is typically about $250,000 to $1 million.
| Tier | Commonly Cited Range | How the Band Is Used |
| Mass affluent | About $100,000 to under $1 million | Wider marketing range below the entry line. The report’s own glossary is narrower. |
| High-net-worth | $1 million or more | Entry point for private banking and luxury-buyer lists. Upper bands remain inside this total. |
| Ultra-high-net-worth | $30 million or more | Top segment of that $1 million-plus group, often a family-office relationship. |
How Luxury Property Teams Use the Label
Sales teams use the tier to sort who is offered a private showing, an off-market introduction, or a single relationship manager. List price is a weak proxy. A buyer can purchase a luxury residence with a mortgage and home equity and still sit under the $1 million investable line. Another buyer can hold a modest primary home and a much larger portfolio.
The practical record is often a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) profile: preferred neighborhoods, whether a trust or company will take title, and which wealth advisor speaks for the household. The label is a service category. It is not a credit decision and not a legal designation.
- Off-market access. Introductions aimed at buyers who can move without a long financing contingency.
- Advisor on the thread. Counsel and wealth managers frequently sit between the agent and the client.
- House-rich is not the same tier. Equity in a primary home stays outside the investable-asset count.
